The Recognition-Primed Decision (RPD) Process

Making Good Decisions Under Pressure

Firefighters often have to make life-or-death decisions with a
moment's notice. One wrong choice could endanger the
lives of others on their team, or of bystanders on the scene.

So how do people who work in high-pressure situations make these
crucial decisions so quickly? The answer lies in how they
assess the situation, and then compare what's in front of them with
situations that they've encountered in the past.

The Recognition-Primed Decision (RPD) Process explores this. In
this article, we'll examine the RPD Process, and look at how you
can use it to make better decisions in high-pressure
situations.

About the RPD Process

The RPD Process was first identified by research psychologists
Gary Klein, Roberta Calderwood, and Anne Clinton-Cirocco in the
late 1980s. Klein then published the process in his 1999 book
"Sources of Power: How People Make Decisions." Klein is best-known
for pioneering the field of naturalistic decision making –
the study of how people make decisions in demanding and
high-pressure situations.

Klein, Calderwood, and Clinton-Cirocco identified the process
after studying professionals such as firefighters, emergency
medical technicians/paramedics, and nuclear technicians, who
routinely make quick, life-or-death decisions. They found that
other decision-making models didn't adequately explain how people
make good decisions under pressure.

The process highlights the three simple steps that we go
through, often subconsciously, when we need to make a quick
decision in a high-pressure situation. This process is based on
"pattern recognition," and on how we use past experiences of
similar situations to influence our decisions.